At present, the technology in flat panel display and flat panel image sensing has entered a stage of rapid development, and various new techniques applied to the field of flat panel display and flat panel image sensing are becoming one of the current research focuses. In the manufacturing process of an array substrate, the static electricity is a strong opponent in improving the yield and manufacturing a qualified array substrate, therefore various accompanied ESD (Electro-Static discharge) protection circuit has come into being.
In the prior art, usually a shorting bar 3 is electrically connected between a common electrode line 1 located in the surrounding region of an array substrate and a protected metal wire 2 to solve the difficulty of electrostatic releasing, as shown in FIG. 1a. In manufacturing process of an array substrate, a protected metal wire 2 is electrically connected to the common electrode line 1 via the shorting bar 3 in order to prevent static electricity. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 1b, the common electrode line 1 and the protected metal wire 2 located on a transparent substrate and originally disconnected from each other are electrically connected together via a conducting material 4, so that charges accumulated on the protected metal wire 2 are released to the common electrode line 1 via the conducting material 4, thus the charges can spread in a wide range, thereby reducing the risk of electrostatic damage in the manufacturing process of the array substrate and thus achieving electrostatic protection. Until near the end of the manufacturing process, an insulating film 5 covering the conducting material 4 is etched to form a via hole; then the conducting material 4 exposed by the via hole is etched so that the conducting material 4 after etching becomes two parts insulated from each other, as shown in FIG. 1c. Finally, a new insulating film 6 is used to cover the structure to protect the structure. And in this way, at the end of the manufacturing process of the array substrate, the purpose of electrically insulating the protected metal wire 2 from the common electrode line 1, i.e. disconnecting the shorting bar in order to make all the protected metal wires 2 operate normally is achieved.
However, in the actual manufacturing process of an array substrate, the via hole that is formed by the etching for disconnecting the shorting bar 3 is relatively deep, and the film quality of the insulating film 6 that is newly formed after the etching for covering is relatively loose at the place near the via hole; and in the process of using a panel, especially during holding and taking the panel, electrostatic discharge is prone to occur at this place, and at this time, the shorting bar does not have the function of electrostatic protection due to being cut off, thus easily leading to electrostatic damage to devices; moreover, the scrapping of good products caused by external static electricity, for example, external static electricity brought by FPC (flexible printed circuit) brought into the panel also should not be underestimated.